CHAPTER 152: BLIGHTBLOOM

"Is that a tree?" Melayne asked upon seeing the boss. "What’s that nasty thing on its side?"

"Whatever it is, it’s coming for us," Ning said. "Get ready."

One of its massive roots lifted high into the air and slammed down toward them with a crushing force. All of them dodged to the side.

Jax rolled to his feet, next to the root impact that had created a crater in the grass where he had been standing. The root then swung horizontally suddenly, coming for him.

This time, Jax wasn’t fast enough. The root wrapped around his torso, lifting him off the ground and beginning to squeeze.

"Jax!" Melayne shouted, charging forward.

Her runic sword blazed with fire as she leaped high into the air, bringing the weapon down in a powerful overhead strike. The flaming blade sliced through the root with little difficulty. The severed root fell to the ground and Jax broke free out of it.

"Thanks!" Jax called out, immediately activating his Divine Threads spell.

Poison threads wrapped around the boss’s trunk. While they wouldn’t be of much help in binding it, it could still take damage.

"Lucille!" Ning shouted. "What are we dealing with?"

"Working on it!" she replied, her analysis spell having been active for more than a few seconds now. "I’ve got it!"

The information flowed into her mind, and she began relaying it quickly to the others.

"It’s called a Blightbloom!" she called out, reading through the information. Her eyes went wide. "The tree is not the boss. It’s the fungus. It’s a parasite that’s taken over it."

Everyone looked at the pulsating thing on the side of the tree that had overtaken it. It was clear it was a fungus of some sort, but it appeared it wasn’t there just because. It was the main thing they were fighting.

"It has three main spells, for now. Bramble Crush, Spore Cloud, and Regenerative Pollen." Lucille read through the details as she paused to duck a thorny vine that whipped overhead, then continued.

"Look out for both root and vine attacks. It will try to crush you with it. Look out for the clouds of spore, they’re poisonous. And it can regenerate, so don’t think we’re winning even if it looks like we’re winning."

Everyone took in the information with some grace.

"It’s resistant to poison, nature, water, and sound elements. But it’s weak against fire and slashing damage!"

"Fire and slashing?" Melayne grinned, her sword already wreathed in flames. "That’s what I’m talking about!"

"Yeah, go ahead and kill them. Leave some gaps for me too. I have a spell to use."

The moment the party heard about the boss’s weaknesses, they knew exactly what to do. Melayne stepped forward, her flaming sword ready to exploit the fungi’s vulnerability to fire and its weakness to slashing damage.

Roman aided her, adding to her Slashing damage, while giving her strength enhancement ass well.

Jax adjusted his strategy, focusing more on his axe’s attacks rather than relying on his poison threads. The poison didn’t do much to begin with, it seemed, so he took it back and applied Earth threads to hold most of the tree and its vines in place.

The Blightbloom responded by raising multiple roots simultaneously, preparing to unleash its Bramble Crush attack.

The real battle was about to begin.

"Stay spread out!" Lucille warned, nocking an arrow.

Roman stepped backward while enhancing Jax’s defensive capability.

Ning saw the boss’ first Critical spot next to the spot where one of its branches connected with its body, and headed straight for it.

The grassland arena gave them room to maneuver, but it also meant the boss had more space to use its massive size and reach to its advantage. This would be a very different fight from the Iron Leopard, but hopefully a far easier one.

Just then, the Blightbloom’s fungal growths pulsed ominously, and suddenly it sent out a cloud of purple spore.

"Poison!" Lucille shouted. "Fall back."

Everyone listened to her words and immediately stepped back no matter how close they were to getting a hit in. Ning who was about to hit the first Critical spot moved back.

The space they gave the boss allowed it to swing its single root at all of them. They managed to dodge it thankfully since it was only one root. The root, however, went for Roman just like it had at Jax at the start.

Melayne jumped for the root and so did Ning and Jax. Ning threw his entire body against the root to delay its and both Jax and Melayne cut it before it could hit Roman.

At the same time, a brilliant red and black ball of flame blasted right past them, flying directly at the fungus in the distance, resulting in a massive explosion. The heat from the blast carried up to Jax and the others, causing them to put their hands up in defense.

"Damn," Melayne said in a stunned tone. "We need to see if you can do something about those restrictions, Lucy. This is too strong of a Spell to keep hidden at all times."

The rest turned toward Lucille, who simply shrugged. "Don’t look at me. Go attack. We have the perfect opportunity."

Ning and Jax ran immediately. One arrived at the monster’s feet, slashing at its roots, while the other struck directly at the monster’s critical spot.

The tree roared upon being hit while the fungus pulsed with light bright enough to see even during the day. The fire that had begun to spread through the tree suddenly died, and light spread further from the fungus, filling the rest of the tree until it reached the roots that were cut off.

They began to heal.

"Don’t let it get healed. Attack!"

Jax attacked at the tree’s base and Melayne came next to him, striking at its vines.

Ning encircled the tree, searching for the next Critical spot. He found it a moment later.

"Roman! A boost please," Ning shouted and ran toward the monster with newfound speed and struck the second Critical spot.